


Coming Home

by wanderlustlights



Series: 14 Days of Valentine's Day Fics [3]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22582003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlights/pseuds/wanderlustlights
Summary: This was the sixth letter that had been placed in his mailbox just this month alone that he’d had to deliver to the correct apartment.This time, however, it wasn’t the apartment number that made him stop dead in his tracks so much as it was the name on the address.
Relationships: Kurt Hummel/David Karofsky
Series: 14 Days of Valentine's Day Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620160
Comments: 7
Kudos: 38





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'm about 99.9% positive that I've never written anything before where they were childhood best friends, here's a fic! In this one, they went to the same elementary and middle school and were best friends before going off to different high schools and lost touch along the way. I wrote this all in pretty much one go, which is kinda rare for me, so it's a bit short and probably not the best but I think I like what I did with it anyway. Also I have no idea why I chose Massachusetts, but well, that's where they ended up in this story lol.

At thirty three, life in Massachusetts was something that Kurt Hummel had only ever hoped it could be: comfortable. After years of striving for success and a life in New York, he had a steady job and was thriving as an editor for the _Boston Globe_ , had wonderful friends who supported him through anything, a crazy yet lovable cat… He was happy. For the most part, anyway. The one avenue he hadn’t yet had success in so far in his life, the one thing he hadn’t managed to accomplish, was that of a love of his life.

He’d had relationships, of course, though nothing of great importance, which was the worst part of all. Any significant other he’d had in his life thus far had been anything _but_ significant _._ Flings may be a more apropos word, if he was being honest with himself.

He didn’t need a man to be happy. He’d grown accustomed to being alone at this point, content with his job and orange and white striped cat at home, but he couldn’t help feeling as though perhaps something was… missing from his life.

Honestly he may have just resigned himself to a life of being a crazy cat person you saw who ended up on _Hoarders: Buried Alive_ or who died alone only to be discovered three weeks later.

And wasn’t that a mortifying thought, _fuck_.

Kurt turned the key in his mailbox, retrieving the envelopes and _Vogue_ magazine from inside before relocking the gold metal and heading up the stairs to his second floor apartment. It was only when he was about to unlock the door to his apartment, flipping through the small stack of mail as he fished out his door key, when a certain envelope caught his eye, making him stop.

“Damn it, Steven,” Kurt muttered, cursing the mailman. This was the sixth letter that had been placed in his mailbox just this month alone that he’d had to deliver to the respective apartment. Normally he just slipped it under their door for them to find when they came home but something about this one was different. It wasn’t so much the apartment number that grabbed his attention - living in apartment _2C_ has somehow garnered mail to be delivered to the wrong apartment on more than occasion. So far he had gotten three pieces of mail that were addressed to _3C_ , one that was meant to go to _2B_ , and somehow, completely bewildering him at the time, one that should have gone to _5E_. Honestly, this mailman was the complete worst and talking to the building management had yet to do any good, always unable to catch Steven before he finished his delivery.

This time, however, it wasn’t the apartment number that made him stop dead in his tracks so much as it was the name on the address.

_David Karofsky_

Kurt stared down at the name for a moment, confusion sweeping through him the more he looked at it.

_There’s no way…_

There had to be more than one David Karofsky out there, right? There was no possible way his childhood best friend and first crush could be living in the same building as him nearly twenty years since he’s last seen him.

It was just a coincidence; it was not _fate_. Not destiny, no matter how much he could feel a tiny shred of hope start to blossom in his chest.

Before he even knew what he was doing, without another rational thought, he walked across the hallway and knocked lightly on the door marked _2D_ , hand shaking slightly.

Not hearing an answer, Kurt knocked again after a moment, before suddenly there was a voice shouting his way.

“Yeah, I’m comin’, hold your horses!”

Kurt frowned, rolling his eyes as he clutched the envelope tighter.

He was starting to debate with himself whether or not he should just slip it under the guy’s door like he’d done with all of the others and shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other door impatiently when, finally, he heard the familiar sound of the door being unlocked and the door swinging open.

Kurt let his eyes rove over the man before him, tall and with brown eyes and dark hair, built and burly form shown in the fitted shirt he was wearing. _Damn._

“Uh, hi?”

“Hi,” Kurt finally replied after a moment when he’d caught his bearings, handing the guy the envelope. “I - I live across the hall and the mailman put this in my mailbox by mistake. He kinda does it a lot so it really shouldn’t come as such a surprise. I mean this is the sixth time within a month that it’s happened. It’s sort of getting out of hand, really. Anyway, I just thought I would drop it off but uhm - your name.”

_Well that was eloquent. Good job, stupid._

“What about it?”

“Your name - David Karofsky? Did… Are you the same David Karofsky who used to live in Lima, Ohio?”

The guy stared at him like he was crazy and really, Kurt couldn’t blame him. He was sort of coming across as a bit unhinged, he was sure. “...Yes.”

“David Karofsky who used to go to Heritage Elementary School and then Lima West Middle School-”

“How do you know that-”

“-and whose favorite TV show as a kid was _Boy Meets World_ and whose favorite bands were Green Day and Bon Jovi and Van Halen-”

“Are you some sort of stalker or something-”

“-and who used to go to the park with me and build blanket forts with me in my living room with string lights and S’mores made in the microwave? My… my best friend until we went to different high schools? That David Karofsky?”

The quiet in the hall was deafening as Dave stared at him, taking in his hopeful expression and tentative smile, realization slowly coming over him.

“Kurt,” he said, the name getting caught in his throat. “Kurt Hummel.”

“Yes,” Kurt breathed, smiling wider.

“How… I mean… This is weird.”

Kurt shrugged one shoulder. “A little, yeah. How - how long has it been, exactly?”

“Something like - I don’t know, nineteen years or something? I think?”

“Nineteen years,” Kurt repeated. “God, that’s a long time.”

Dave nodded as they fell into silence yet again, watching as Kurt squirmed uncomfortably. “Are you busy right now?”

“Not at all,” Kurt said with a smile, shaking his head quickly. “I was just getting home from work. I’m as free as a bird for the rest of the night.”

“D’you wanna come inside?”

“Yes. I’d love that.”

Dave smiled, opening the door further.

“Hey, Dave?” Kurt said quietly, not moving, an uncertainty in his voice.

“Yeah?”

“I… I know this may be an awkward question, and feel free to say no of course, but - could I maybe hug-”

Dave was pulling him in quickly before Kurt could even get all the words out, nearly knocking the wind out of him with the abrupt collision of Dave’s chest crashing into his own and arms wrapped around him.

“-you?” Kurt finished with a smile, closing his eyes and placing his arms on Dave’s back in return as they stayed standing there for a long moment. Dave’s breath was warm on his neck, a calming reassurance that this was real, that it was actually happening and Dave was right there with him, his body radiating heat in a way that he hadn’t felt since they were fourteen.

 _This,_ Kurt thought. _This is coming home._

—

At thirty five, life in Massachusetts is something that Kurt Hummel had only ever dreamt it could be: absolutely fucking _perfect_. After that fateful day of reuniting with David Karofsky, and the inevitability of dating, a proposal in a blanket fort aligned with string lights, wine, and S’mores in the living room of their apartment is only the icing on the cake that is his life.

The white lights illuminating the blankets above them, Kurt tackles Dave to the ground off of his knee, causing him to let out a bellowing laugh before Kurt’s kissing it right out of him.

“Of course I’ll marry you, you idiot,” says Kurt, kissing Dave along any inch of bare skin anywhere he can reach. “After all, you know what they say, don’t you?”

“What’s that?” Dave asks, hands moving to Kurt’s sides and flipping them so that Kurt’s back is flush against the cherry wood floors.

Kurt grins up at him, beaming. “Marry your best friend.”


End file.
